title: Continuous permeability measurements record healing inside the Wenchuan earthquake fault zone.
abstract: Permeability controls fluid flow in fault zones and is a proxy for rock damage after an earthquake. We used the tidal response of water level in a deep borehole to track permeability for 18 months in the damage zone of the causative fault of the 2008 moment magnitude 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake. The unusually high measured hydraulic diffusivity of 2.4 × 10(-2) square meters per second implies a major role for water circulation in the fault zone. For most of the observation period, the permeability decreased rapidly as the fault healed. The trend was interrupted by abrupt permeability increases attributable to shaking from remote earthquakes. These direct measurements of the fault zone reveal a process of punctuated recovery as healing and damage interact in the aftermath of a major earthquake.
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA. lxue3@ucsc.edu
authors.forename: Lian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Hai-Bing
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Emily E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Brodsky
authors.forename: Zhi-Qing
authors.initials: ZQ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Yasuyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kano
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: James J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Jia-Liang
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Si
authors.forename: Jun-Ling
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Pei
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Guang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhi-Ming
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004190:Disasters; D055866:Earthquakes; D060587:Groundwater